Portrait of an extraordinary musical dog

Reinagle, Philip (1749-1833)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1805
Height:
71.8 cm  (28 1/4 in.)
Width:
92.7 cm  (36 1/2 in.)
frame size: 32 1/8 × 40 in.
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas

Description

Brown spaniel dog sits on a red stool at a square piano with front paws on keyboard, face to the viewer. On the piano's music stand is a bound music manuscript collection open to a setting of "God save the King." The countryside can be seen out the window.

Iconclass

34B11(...)(+7)
dog (SPANIEL) (+ exercising, performing animal)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Square pianoforte [2308] (piano has no strings)

Musical works

God save the kinglegible music notation

RIdIM images


Image courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Libin, Laurence. "Philip Reinagle's 'Extraordinary musical dog'", Music in art: International journal for music iconography 23, 1-2 (1998) 97-100. RILM 1998-04758.

Notes

According to Libin, the piano is likely from the Broadwood manufacturer, ca. 1795.

RIdIM record id

5041